Are rooftop and backyard solar panels the undisputed poster-children of home-grown renewable energy?

The answer is an unqualified yes — if you ask the growing number of Vermonters who are winding back their electric meters with modest-sized, grid-connected photovoltaic arrays.

For Burlington resident Gary DeCarolis, the panels on his roof are a no-brainer.

“Other than seeing them arrive when they came in on the truck, I really haven’t seen them,” he said Thursday. “They just work.”

But for the state legislature, and for utilities who challenge the cost-effectiveness of “net-metered” generation (solar being by far the most popular), the question is trickier.

Early signs of a consensus have surfaced: solar panels should continue to soar to rooftops — but not too quickly.

The pace of that embrace will remain under discussion this week by members of the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee.

Most encouragingly for solar fans, the committee is considering an administration-endorsed proposal to lift limits on the amount of power connected consumers may contribute to the grid.

Keep a lid on it?

Currently, utilities must cap that flow at 4 percent of their peak demand, unless the utility can convince state regulators that exceeding the 4 percent cap would be in their ratepayers best interest.

The Public Service Department recommends an increase to 15 percent, with 2017 as the target date for a complete overhaul of regulations.

In a proposal released earlier this month, the department acknowledges that Vermonters are chomping at the bit for more photovolaics.

“We have seen net metering capacity (90 percent of which is solar) increase from approximately 12 megwatts at the start of 2011 to over 39 megawatts pending or installed today,” it states.

The administration’s proposal also credits solar power with helping to avoid “hundreds of millions of dollars in costly transmission projects,” by generating electricity close to where it is consumed (long power lines also waste electricity through “leakage”).

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That logic resonates with Green Mountain Power, Vermont’s largest electric utility, said company spokeswoman Dotty Schnure.

By generating ample on-site power during peak summer months net metering “shaves” the utility’s spot-market imports, and defers investment in new lines and equipment, Schnure said.

“We’ve also determined that this is what our customers want,” she added.

Smaller utilities aren’t buying into it as easily.

Un-made in the shade

Johnson-based Vermont Electric Cooperative reached the 4-percent threshold in July and put a freeze on new installations.

The risk, said spokeswoman Liz Gamache, is that under current guidelines, net-metered customers don’t just roll back their bills, but also decrease (or “net-out”) their share of fixed costs, such as line-maintenance and Efficiency Vermont fees — and increase the share of those costs borne by coop members who haven’t or can’t embrace net metering.

“About 30 percent of our customers can’t do rooftop arrays due to shading or space constraints — or because they’re renters,” Gamache explained.

Deputy Public Service Commissioner Darren Springer, who helped prepare the department’s report, said Thursday that the department has responded to concerns that too much solar, too quickly, might be bad for business.

Lowering the rate at which net-metered power is credited to customers is one of his proposals.

Directing the Public Service Board to seek out administrative and logistical efficiencies is another.

Yet another approach to net metering — something akin to condo-style ownership —emerged in August in Putney.

Panel of investors

Motivated by hankering demand, Putney-resident Nick Ziter founded SunFarm Community Solar and took names. With the help of Colorado-based Clean Energy Collective, he lined up about 50 people who, literally, sought ownership in a 588-panel array.

To qualify for group net metering, each investor had to be within the boundaries of a single utility, in this case Green Mountain Power. The panels flew off the shelves, so to speak, at $812 a pop, Ziter said.

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The price includes a 50-year maintenance and insurance plan; the funds held in escrow.

Since then, SunFarm has teamed up with Clean Energy Collective to develop a six-acre, south-facing field in Alburgh — a project that, when permitted, just squeaked beneath Vermont Electric Cooperative’s 4-percent cap.

“We see this as yet another opportunity to work things out with our members,” Gamache said. “As you might expect, there are economies and efficiencies of scale with group net metering.”

Those advantages include siting an array for optimum generation, as well as for proximity to an appropriately sized sub-station, she added.

Gamache’s duties as the coop’s manager of corporate services include regular trips to Montpelier for the ongoing legislative hearings on net metering.

Her assessment of the progress likely corresponds to that of many of us: “We’re still looking for solutions.”

Take a number

Most experts agree that for any energy plan, the pay-back and/or break-even period will vary widely with the customer.

On its website, Burlington Electric Department thumbnails a notion of what to expect from a quartet of typical, 250-watt panels: approximately 1,100 kilowatt-hours — or between a fourth and fifth of what a typical residential customer might burn through in a year.

The home economics is compelling enough to prompt waiting lines for sign-ups, SunFarm’s Ziter said.